Yesterday, August 6, 2008, the Louisiana Chapter of the American Civil Liberties Union (ACLU) released its report entitled "Unequal Under the Law," which accuses the Avoyelles Parish town of Bunkie of racial profiling. (See: "ACLU study claims Bunkie police practice racial profiling"). This is actually old news, as the Town Talk first reported this information in its story "Rally in Bunkie protests alleged police misconduct" and again was mentioned in a letter written in on May 11, 2008.The ACLU's press release from yesterday states that "The most extreme example of racial profiling was found in the towns of Bunkie, where people of color are 3.8 times more likely to be arrested than white people, and Mansfield, where people of color are 2.9 times more likely to be arrested than white people." But where the ACLU's report falls short in connecting the dots is that it fails to mention how many of those Blacks arrested had actually committed a crime.
It is factual, not racist, to state that statistics have shown that Blacks commit much more reported crime than Whites. A 1999 study, by the New Century Foundation, found the following:
- There is more black-on-white than black-on-black violent crime. (See: "The Color of Crime; Race, Crime and Violence in America);
- Of the approximately 1,700,000 interracial crimes of violence involving blacks and whites, 90 percent are committed by blacks against whites. Blacks are therefore up to 250 times more likely to do criminal violence to whites than the reverse.
- Blacks commit violent crimes at four to eight times the white rate. Hispanics commit violent crimes at approximately three times the white rate, and Asians at one half to three quarters the white rate.
- Blacks are twice as likely as whites to commit hate crimes.
- Hispanics are a hate crime victim category but not a perpetrator category. Hispanic offenders are classified as whites, which inflates the white offense rate and gives the impression that Hispanics commit no hate crimes.
- Blacks are as much more dangerous than whites as men are more dangerous than women.
Racial Profiling
The ACLU defines "racial profiling" as:
- "Racial Profiling" refers to the discriminatory practice by law enforcement officials of targeting individuals for suspicion of crime based on the individual's race, ethnicity, religion or national origin. Criminal profiling, generally, as practiced by police, is the reliance on a group of characteristics they believe to be associated with crime. Examples of racial profiling are the use of race to determine which drivers to stop for minor traffic violations (commonly referred to as "driving while black or brown"), or the use of race to determine which pedestrians to search for illegal contraband. (See: ACLU's "Racial Profiling: Definition").
To make an arrest, or most traffic stops, police must have "probably cause". "Probable cause has been defined as "A reasonable belief that a person has committed a crime." (See: "Probable Cause"). Therefore, if police pull over a person merely because they are Black, without probable cause, that would be an illegal stop under the Fourth Amendment, applicable to the states through the Fourteenth Amendment.
The only insidious aspect of racial profiling that I see, which isn't protected against by the law, is that it could let some White criminals, for example, escape the wheels of justice.
Conclusion
Unless and until the ACLU 'connects the dots' and can show how many of those Black arrested in Bunkie actually committed no crime, its report proves nothing.
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